BINTULU: From 1997 t o September 2017, Sarawak has a total of 12,779 potential organ donors which accounted for 3.2 per cent of the total number of potential organ donors in Malaysia which is 397,476 people.
Thi s was disclosed by Assistant Minister of Education and Technology Research and Assistant Minister of Housing and Public Health, Dr Annuar Rapa’ee at a press conference after he officiated the closing ceremony of state-level Organ Donation Awareness Week 2017 here, yesterday.
The number of potent ial organ donors in the state is far behind compared to potential organ donors in Selangor which recorded the highest number with 79,919 or 20.1 per cent. As of January 1, 2017 t o September 30, 2017, Sarawak recorded only 310 organ donation pledges and this has been significantly reduced over the same period last year of 1,824 persons.
Thus, Annuar called from more people in the state, especially the younger generation to register as organ donors. He added that up to now, the number of organ failure patients is increasing each year and the only treatment method is by the transplantation of healthy organs to the patients.
“The effort to enhance awareness to the community including the younger generation is really needed so that they can better understand the issue of organ donation,” he said. According to him, there are 21,954 kidney patients on the waiting list. “These patients only rely on dialysis machines for life while kidney transplantation is fewer than 50 patients annually.
The cost is also very high which the government has to bear,” he pointed out. According to him, organ donations and transplants in Malaysia are still at a low level where the average organ donation is only 1.5 per million inhabitants. He added that the dat a obtained from the Transplant Resource Centre showed that from 2005 to 2017, the Ministry of Health Malaysia had successfully acquired a total of 560 kidneys, 77 livers, 31 hearts and 10 lungs. “These organs have been donated to patients with endo r g a n f a i l u r e t h ro u g h o u t Malaysia,” he said.
In this regard, he explained that organ donation after death is legal in accordance with the Human Tissue Act, 1974. The ‘fatwa’ on the necessity of donation and organ transplant has been issued since June, 1970. Thus, he urged people from all walks of life to understand and be aware of organ donation.
